Dr Laura K. Taylor, Associate Professor at University College Dublin (UCD) School of Psychology and Principal Investigator of the Helping Kids! lab, has received a prestigious European Research Council (ERC) Consolidator Award.

Dr Taylor will receive €2 million for her GENERATION EU project, which will explore how young people develop and align with a ‘European’ identity, and the implications that this can have for social cohesion and peace.

The ERC today announced a total of €728 million in Consolidator Grants for 349 mid-career researchers. With funding from the EU’s Horizon Europe programme, these grants will support cutting-edge research at universities and research centres in 25 EU Member States and associated countries.

Ekaterina Zaharieva, European Commissioner for Startups, Research and Innovation, said, “Congratulations to all the researchers on winning the ERC grants. The record budget of 728 million euro invested to support these scientific projects shows the EU is serious about making the continent attractive for excellent researchers.”

Professor Maria Leptin, President of the European Research Council, said, “To see all this talent with groundbreaking ideas, based in Europe, is truly inspiring. This bold research may well lead to new industries, improve lives and strengthen Europe’s global standing. This was one of the most competitive ERC calls ever, with record demand and also many excellent projects left unfunded. It is yet another reminder of how urgent the call for increased EU investment in frontier research has become.”

Professor Niamh Moore Cherry, College Principal at UCD College of Social Sciences and Law, said, “Recognition of Assoc Prof Taylor’s research by the European Research Council through this award is most welcome given the timeliness of her GENERATION EU project on understanding how young people are developing and identifying with the idea of being European amidst great geopolitical uncertainty and polarisation. The GENERATION EU project builds on her previous work with children and young people in divided societies and will help us to better understand and foster inclusivity and social cohesion. We look forward to following this important research as it progresses.”

The ERC received 3,121 applications for this very competitive call - a 35 percent increase compared with the previous round. Recognising outstanding scholars, the Consolidator Awards aim to support those at a career stage where they may still be consolidating their own independent research teams to pursue their most promising research ideas.

The GENERATION EU Project

Children and adolescents account for 1 in 5 people in Europe today, and a significant number of these youths are within the first generation of native EU citizens in their country. Their support for, and identification with, Europe will have significant implications for peace on the continent.

The GENERATION EU project will investigate how European identity develops across childhood, adolescence and young adulthood, and the impact that this can have on peacebuilding and wider society.

Project PI, Dr Laura K. Taylor, explains, “Superordinate identities, or overarching categories, like ‘European’, can be used to include or exclude. Such identities may help unite conflict rivals. My research in conflict zones across the continent shows that children who felt more European were more likely to act prosocially - to help and share - with conflict-rival peers. However, at a national level, there are examples where such categories have also been used to exclude and penalise minority groups.

“GENERATION EU comes at a critical time, to enhance understanding of how we can build peace on the continent. This project explores how youth come to identify with superordinate identities, examining the potential positive impact that this can have on society, as well as the unintended negative consequences.”

GENERATION EU takes an intergroup developmental approach to study risk and resilience processes for children, families and communities in settings of protracted conflict. Combining cross-national surveys, field experiments, archival research and large-scale quantitative text analysis, the project will generate a new comprehensive model and interdisciplinary data and tools for the fields of psychology and peacebuilding. This will have implications not only for European social cohesion and peace, but also for other global regional identities.

Learn more about the ERC Awards and see the full list of Awardees for this round here.